Wyoming
Wyoming Senate demands Congress hand over federal land, including Grand Teton – WyoFile
The Wyoming Senate narrowly voted Thursday for a resolution demanding that Congress turn over some 30 million federal acres to the state — but only after first defeating the measure and then reconsidering it.
Senate Joint Resolution 2, “Resolution demanding equal footing,” insists that Congress act by October to begin turning over the property. That includes Grand Teton National Park, all or parts of eight national forests, Devils Tower National Monument, the Thunder Basin National Grassland and vast swaths of sagebrush and desert managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The resolution faces two more votes in the Senate.
The “equal footing” argument behind the resolution proposes that Wyoming is not on a level with midwestern and eastern states. That’s because 46% of Wyoming is federally controlled — owned by all Americans — to the detriment of Wyoming’s sovereignty and economy, lead resolution sponsor Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper, said.
He spent a considerable portion of the approximately 35-minute debate touting conservative legal theories and the economic benefits of owning the property and underlying minerals. Under state ownership, the land would have generated almost $24 billion in oil and gas revenue since 1921, he said.
“Congress has no authority to not dispose.”
Bob Ide
Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, who chaired the session, called the initial voice vote in favor of Ide’s resolution. But a demand for a head count and roll call revealed the 16-14-1 tally.
The resolution “is deemed indefinitely postponed,” Boner said. GOP Sen. Tim French, a GOP supporter of the resolution from Powell, was excused and absent.
When French reappeared Thursday afternoon, Sen. Ogden Driskill, who originally voted with the majority and against the resolution, called for reconsideration. He and French then made the 16-15 margin in favor. There was no additional debate ahead of the new vote.
Legal theories
The debate offered Ide and others a platform for grievances and explanations of the reasoning behind the resolution. One legal scholar has said those come from a misreading of the Constitution.
After studying legal briefs filed in an unsuccessful attempt by Utah to take the federal land issue straight to the U.S. Supreme Court, Ide said “I’m more convicted that we have a strong case here, and we need to protect our state.”
Congress has the power to dispose of federal property, he said.
“If the power given to Congress is to dispose territorial and public lands, then Congress has no authority to not dispose,” he told the Senate. “This is just common sense.
“A continued failure on the part of Congress to fulfill its duty to dispose of the aforementioned lands and resources has resulted in two constitutional violations,” Ide said.
He also fielded a question from Buffalo rancher and Republican Sen. Barry Crago regarding a clause in the Wyoming Constitution that says the state “forever disclaim[s] all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within [Wyoming’s] boundaries.”
“I think we may have to deal with our own constitution first,” Crago said.
Ide was undeterred.
“I’ve thoroughly talked to all of the foremost experts on this, too,” he said.
“I’m convinced that this part of our constitution isn’t a problem,” Ide said, after asserting, “We didn’t disclaim sovereignty and jurisdiction.”
Bashing the BLM
Ide also bashed a BLM initiative to put conservation on an equal footing with drilling, mining and other uses on 3.6 million acres in Southwest Wyoming. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Monday ordered the Wyoming BLM office to review the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan that Ide referred to and recommend changes by Feb. 18.
“They’re taking 3 million acres out of any human contact,” Ide said of the Rock Springs plan and others like it. Statewide, “our oil and gas leasing has been shut down 87% on federal land since the last administration,” he claimed.
Supporting Ide, industry landman Sen. Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, said the last four years “should have been a pretty big eye opener [of] what can happen when the feds go crazy and want to close us down.
“They can destroy our economy,” he said. “They can destroy our way of life because of the power they have.”
Sen. Mike Gierau, a Democrat from Jackson, said he’s received more calls and emails about the resolution “than any other subject so far this session.”
The Grand Teton National Park budget is $13 million for base operation and $110 million over the last two years in maintenance and upkeep. The park operates more than 800 buildings and 23 wastewater systems — “millions and millions of dollars in expenses,” Gierau said.
Fees collected “are nowhere near” the expenses, he said. Grand Teton draws 3.2 million visitors annually and is “the bedrock source of our economy.”
“I would suffice to say, at this moment in time, it is the bedrock economic driver for this entire state.” Under Ide’s plan, the state could cede certain properties like Grand Teton back to the American people.
Lauren Heerschap, owner of Brunton International, LLC, spoke for conservationists and said federal lands are “too important to risk with short-sighted and disingenuous takeover proposals.” She called for another reconsideration on second and third readings.
In addition to Ide, Boner, Driskill, French and Biteman, the reconsideration and resolution itself were backed by Sens. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton; Larry Hicks, R-Baggs; Lynn Hutchings, R-Cheyenne; Stacy Jones, R, Rock Springs; John Kolb, R-Rock Springs; Dan Laursen, R-Powell; Troy McKeown, R-Gillette; Laura Taliaferro Pearson, R-Kemmerer; Tim Salazar, R-Riverton; Darin Smith, R-Cheyenne and Cheri Steinmetz, R-Torrington.
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
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Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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